Writing The TV Drama Series

How to Succeed as a Professional Writer in TV
By Pamela Douglas

Book Review
By Ann Baldwin 


Pamela Douglas is an award-winning screenwriter with numerous credits in television drama. She was honored with the Humanitas Prize for Between Mother and Daughter (CBS), an hour drama that was also nominated for a Writers Guild Award. She also received an Emmy nomination and NAACP Image Award for writing Different Worlds, an hour drama on CBS. Her shows won awards from American Women in Radio and Television – her original drama, Sexual Considerations, and her episode of the series A Year in the Life (NBC). Her series credits include Star Trek: The Next Generation, Frank’s Place, Paradise, Trapper John, M.D., and many others. In her book, Writing The TV Drama Series: How to Succeed as a Professional Writer in TV, 3rd edition (Michael Wiese Productions 2011), Pamela gives you an in-depth look at what it takes to break into and make a living at writing for TV drama.

She covers the history of TV shows and programming from the three-network era to current day with cable and the internet, which created more opportunities for writers. You’ll learn the process of how shows get on TV to include diagrams of the two-year (month-by-month) development and first season of a new show, which gives writers a realistic road map of what to expect.

You gain the benefits from Pamela’s tips and advice on the do’s and don’ts of working on staff for a show as she includes numerous examples from her own and other writer's experience in the trenches. She includes three enlightening interviews with seven of her former USC film students as you hear what each of them went through in the fourteen years after they graduated.

Each chapter is followed by an interview with seasoned professionals such as Steven Bochco (NYPD Blues, L.A. Law, Hillstreet Blues), Ann Donohue (CSI: Miami), Robert and Michelle King (The Good Wife), Georgia Jeffries (Cagney & Lacey, China Beach), David Isaacs (M*A*S*H, Mad Men) and many more who give you a wealth of sound insights to guide you on your journey.

I highly recommend Writing The TV Drama Series for all writers who want a clear and detailed picture of life as a writer for TV drama. To learn more about Pamela Douglas you can visit her website at http://www.pamdouglasbooks.com/ and purchase a copy of Writing The TV Drama Series at Michael Wiese Productions, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble.